Downer rejects report into Iraq intelligence

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The Howard Government today stood by its decision to take part in the Iraq war, despite a United States report saying intelligence agencies had overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

The US Senate Intelligence Committee's report found that US intelligence agencies misrepresented the extent of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and key judgments were either overstated or not backed up with evidence.

The report also voiced concerns about US intelligence service failures leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, said the overthrow of Saddam's regime was justified.

"It is perfectly clear from what we've found out since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime that Saddam Hussein's regime was in clear breach of [United Nations] Security Council resolutions," Mr Downer told reporters in Adelaide.

"He had missiles that exceeded the designated United Nations range.

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"It was perfectly clear he had chemical and biological weapons programs.

"Chemical shells have been found in Iraq which are supposed to have been declared and destroyed."

Mr Downer said the debate over whether certain pieces of intelligence were accurate "would go on forever".

"But in the end the right decision was made to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime and eliminate that threat to human rights, neighbouring countries and the international community," he said.

Mr Downer also rejected the report's claim that the Iraq war had worsened international security, saying it had eliminated a terrorist breeding ground.

"It's good for Australia as well as the rest of the world," he said.

The Opposition foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said Mr Howard should apologise to the Australian people for taking the country to war on a lie.

"If John Howard had any sense of self-respect today he would apologise to the Australian people for taking them to war on the basis of a lie," Mr Rudd told reporters in Brisbane today.

"He said we had to go to war to remove those weapons so that they would not get into the hands of terrorists."

Mr Rudd said the Government had also under-resourced intelligence agencies to assess American evidence for war.

"John Howard's central failing was to rely almost exclusively on US intelligence which has now proven to be false and not to give the Australian intelligence community the resources to independently vet the intelligence product coming from America," Mr Rudd said.

Mr Downer said Labor members had shown over the past week they were confused about America.

"When it suits them it says we should adopt the views of an American senate committee," he said.